1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to truck bed extenders and, in particular, to a truck bed extender that can fit vehicles of different brands and configurations.
2. Problems in the Art
Truck bed extenders are commercially available from a variety of vendors. Their benefits are well known. They can increase cargo capacity for pickup-style vehicles.
The present inventor has patented several styles of truck bed extenders. They are described at U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,155,622; 6,513,850; and 6,746,066, each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The foregoing patents illustrate truck bed extender features that have a variety of benefits. However, the inventor has identified room for improvement in this technical field.
The foregoing incorporated by reference patents include embodiments that attach to the vehicle using original equipment structure on the vehicle. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,066 attaches the front of the truck bed extender to original equipment tailgate latching pins on the pickup truck body. The lower back of the truck bed extender is attached to complementary original equipment latches for those latching pins on the truck tailgate. The truck bed extender is mounted when the tailgate is unlatched and lowered. This makes the original equipment latching pins at the rear sidewalls of the truck bed available as one set of anchoring or mounting points. It also makes the latches on the tailgate available as a second set of anchoring points. Not only does this utilize existing robust mounting locations on the pickup truck, it eliminates costs and complexity of adding aftermarket custom mounting structures to the vehicle, which is required by many other truck bed extenders. Many truck owners would prefer not to modify their vehicles in those ways.
The idea of using existing tailgate latching pins and latches presents an issue that has been identified by the inventor to be of significance. In most vehicles, the original equipment latching pins are in a fixed relationship to the truck body. Latches on the tailgate thus are positioned in geometric correlation. When the tailgate is pivoted around its pivot axis to the closed position, the latches on the tailgate must correspond with the latching pins on the truck body.
However, the fixed position of the tailgate latching pins is not identical across different vehicles. This is particularly true regarding different brand names or manufacturers. The latching pins on one brand might be several inches higher on opposite inside sidewalls of the truck body than on another brand. This makes the latches on the tailgate several inches farther out on the tailgate.
The state of the art accounts for the different fixed relationships between latching pins and latches between different pickup trucks by building a different bed extender configuration for each different latching pin/latch configuration. For example, General Motors pickup trucks would require a bed extender such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,066 with different latch pin/latch mount locations than one for Ford pickups. And Ram pickups would require a still further model bed extender. Still further models might require different bed extender mounts and thus require still further inventory. This adds cost and complexity to the manufacturing process. This requires an inventory of different bed extender models for different brand pickups, which can also increase cost to dealers and distributors.
Thus, the state of the art generally builds a different model bed extender for different configuration vehicles. A solution to this issue is nontrivial. Economy is a factor with truck bed extenders. These aftermarket products must be economically attractive and practical to consumers. Additionally, the complexity, material costs, flexibility and ease of use, and structural robustness are all competing factors that must be accounted for.